New York Rangers: Looking back at the 1994 experience

The New York Rangers provided their fans with a marvelous, nostalgic look back to the 1994 Stanley Cup Champions in a celebration of the 25th anniversary of that unforgettable season.  The sad thing is that you had to be born in the mid-eighties to remember it firsthand.

The 1994 Stanley Cup Champion New York Rangers have taken on mythical status among Ranger fans. Whenever a member of that team visits the Garden tribute is paid with his image on the big screen and a standing ovation as the Rangers Victory Song plays in the background.  As the Rangers hit the quarter century mark without a title,  a whole new generation of Ranger fans is beginning to understand the significance of ending a 54 year drought.  All I can say is, you had to be there to really know.  For young fans, here is a history lesson.  For older fans, it’s a trip down memory lane.

The rest of the series

For most fans the Stanley Cups Finals are four highlights:  the Pavel Bure penalty shot, the game seven goals by Brian Leetch and Mark Messier and the final faceoff.  It was actually a hard fought seven game series that decimated both teams.  In Game One the Canucks won in overtime after Brian Leetch hit a post.  The Rangers then won the next three games, fairly decisively and returned to the Garden for Game Five to win the Cup.  Only they lost Game Five 6-3, with the turning point when an Esa Tikkanen goal was disallowed on an offside call (it wasn’t offside).   Then, the Rangers were never in Game Six , losing 4-1.

When the teams returned to the Garden for Game Seven, there was a definite feeling that the series was slipping through their fingers like so many in the past. People forget that the Vancouver Canucks had finished one game over .500 with 27 fewer points than the Rangers.  This series had no business going seven games.  By game seven the walking wounded included Jeff Beukeboom and Kevin Lowe.  This game was never a sure thing.

The Islanders

The table have really turned, though this year the Islanders seem to have reversed their fortunes. Current Ranger fans can torment Islander fans by pointing out that they have won all of one playoff series in 25 years and that they’ve missed the playoffs 16 out of the last 25 years.  In 1994, things were completely different.  The memory of four consecutive Stanley Cups for the Islanders was only ten years away. Add in the fact that the Islanders eliminated the Rangers in the playoffs for four consecutive years and the scars still remain for those of us who lived through it. That’s why “Potvin sucks” still resonates in the Garden in every game, more out of jealousy than reality and in reality, a feeble comeback against Islander greatness.

1940

I can’t quite describe the feeling to be serenaded with “1940” every year the Rangers fell short in the playoffs.  Losing to the Islanders or the Devils meant a chorus of disdain from our regional rivals. Believe me, there was no opportunity passed up by those fans to take the opportunity to invoke the chant. It wasn’t just Devils and Islander fans who chanted it.  It was burned in our brains by fans in Pittsburgh, Washington and Philadelphia every time they eliminated the Blueshirts.